New data claims Windows 8.1 lost OS market share for first time since launch

The latest operating system numbers from research firm Net Applications show that Windows 8.1 actually lost a tiny amount of its worldwide market share in July 2014. This is the first time this has happened since Microsoft officially released the revamped version of Windows 8 in October 2013.

According to Net Applications' data, based on stats generated by unique visitors to its websites, Windows 8.1's market share went down from 6.61 percent in June to 6.56 percent in July. Windows 8 also went down from 5.93 percent to 5.92 percent. The combined share for Windows 8 and 8.1 was calculated to be 12.48 percent in July, down from 12.54 percent.

While the changes in share are admittedly tiny, it does seem that Microsoft's efforts to improve Windows 8 with the 8.1 update, and thus have the OS gain more acceptance, have not been as successful at the company hopes, in terms of new PC sales. Microsoft has already announced that cheaper Windows tablets and notebooks are planned for release this fall which could help boost Windows 8.1's share in the short term. Microsoft is already working on the next major version of Windows, code named Threshold, which is rumored for a launch sometime in the spring of 2015.

In the meantime, Windows 7 still dominates, with Net Applications showing that it was installed on 51.22 percent of PCs worldwide in July, up from 50.55 percent in June. Windows XP, which is no longer being supported by Microsoft, went down to 24.82 percent in July, compared to 25.31 percent in June.